Monthly Archives: April 2013

The World Social Forum (WSF) was held last March in Tunis (Tunisia). The Comboni family (Missionary Sisters and Comboni Missionaries) participated, while holding the Comboni Forum. At the end of the Forum, they published their final statement. The Comboni family gathered at the World Social Forum was a guest of a nation being born…

Two church leaders from Southern Kordofan state, in the Sudan, accused Omar Al Bashir’s regime of nurturing a cleansing plan for the region. From our correspondent. In March, two pastors in Juba reported on the humanitarian situation in Southern Kordofan caused by the war between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-North (SPLM/A-N) and the Government of…

Paride Taban won the 2013 Sergio Vieira de Mello Prize for his work at the Holy Trinity Peace Village in Kuron, in the east of South Sudan, which he founded. A powerful example of peace and reconciliation. On a hilltop between Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv there is a peculiar community called Neve Shalom/Wahat as-Salaam (The Oasis…

A shattered country. A population in poverty. Arms to warring factions. A difficult dialogue. Notwithstanding, the Church is committed to peace. We met Monsignor Antoine Audo, bishop of Aleppo and president of Caritas Syria. Riots began two years ago in Daraa, a town in southern Syria near the Jordanian border. They quickly spread to…

When the independence of African nations became unavoidable, British and French colonisers followed a common pattern. They ignored the rightful call for self-determination and did all they could to create new nations according to their own needs. This is the case of Sudan and Chad, where southern peoples did not want to share the same…

A ‘king without a coach’, an eccentric ambassador, a true artist. Oxmo Puccino is all of these. UNICEF France recently named the 39-year-old Bamako-born hip-hop singer an ‘Ambassador’. He has been part of the musical scene for 25 years. Roi sans carrosse (King without a coach) is his sixth album which, a mere 6 months…

The indigenous concept of “good living” can be adapted to Western culture. Understanding the indigenous world view involves questioning how we are traditionally taught to face life. For example, knowing how to distinguish between “living better,” the basis of Western development, and “good living,” or sumak kawsay in Kichwa.“Living better” is a Western model…

Burmese women’s and children’s use of thanaka is a unique custom; we uncover this tradition’s background and the reasons it continues to thrive today Burmese women feel great pride when they are asked to explain the golden paste covering their faces. This traditional skin conditioner has been used in Burmese society for centuries and…

The overall objective of the AU is to expedite the process of economic and political integration in the continent. Its vision can be summarized in the following points: – the AU is Africa’s premier institution and principal organization for the promotion of the accelerated socio-economic integration of the continent which will lead to greater unity…

The strongest argument for the AU is that it would reinvigorate Africa and speed up its integration providing a single voice for Africa to bargain with. It remains to be seen whether unity develops in line with perceived interests or as dictated by external factors. This desire for unity and eventually integration can be…

Thirty-six years after the OAU was founded, Africans have yielded to the evidence: without political integration, the continent will not be saved.For a long time a taboo subject, the project for a United States of Africa was first mooted in a pan-African meeting in Cairo in 1960, by Kwame Nkrumah. He is the father…

The present African Union (AU) succeeded the Organization of African Unity (OAU), formed in May 1963. The OAU was a compromise between African Statesmen who wanted the political Union of all independent African States and those who preferred functional cooperation.The main objectives of the OAU were: to rid the continent of the remaining vestiges…